Shanties are work songs which I, as a manual worker, am able to associate with different jobs I have carried out in my working life, ...

Genteel ladies may spend their time arranging flowers in church but there are plenty of women who have jobs just as arduous as men. My mother worked in a biscuit factory and spent her time digging dough out of huge containers and loading it onto the work-belt while the men stood round in brown coats, supervising. Even stay-at-home housewives, in the days before automatic washing machines, cars and click & collect, had to lug heavy shopping home, wash and dry heavy laundry by hand and walk miles taking the children to and from school. They knew what hard work was from personal experience. Enough to justify singing chanties as any other landlubber.

DC